The Fine Art of Crocheting
by Sakura245
Summary: Kyouka takes up crocheting. Atsushi plays with the yarn. Pure fluff


**Hello! I had a huge writing binge recently (as you can all probably tell).**

 **I got inspired for this fanfiction because I took up crocheting a bit more in college, and I've been working on a blanket for the past month. Here was a way to incorporate my love of crochet, writing, and imagining Atsushi acting like a cat into one story.**

It all started with a suggestion from a lady at the craft store.

Actually… Wait, no... Scratch that...

It all started with a suggestion from Yosano and a few other at the Agency.

"You ought to take up a hobby," Yosano remarked one day.

Kyouka blinked. "Why?" She didn't see any need for a hobby in her life. She was out of the Port Mafia, she had a home, and she could consider Atsushi and the Armed Detective Agency her family. Kyouka had more than she needed, and more she'd dared to hope for. What would a hobby add to the list?

Yosano folded her gloved hands. "Kyouka-chan, what do you do for fun?"

"Go on cases, fill out paperwork, and cook breakfast and dinner with Atsushi."

Yosano shook her head. "The first two aren't so much hobbies. You do that because you work here." Kyouka opened her mouth to protest. "It's good if you enjoy it, but your job isn't really a hobby." She paused to consider the last hobby Kyouka had listed. "That last one is technically a hobby, but I think it'd be good for you to try something new, just to expand your horizon a bit."

The girl had a pensive look on her face when she actually thought it through, and as she listened to the doctor explain how it was healthy for people to have leisure activities and all the extra benefits to having some sort of hobby. It wouldn't hurt to add a skills under her belt. Learning something new and practicing it until she reached perfection sounded good.

"Crafts are fun," Naomi said, jumping into the conversation. "You could try that."

"Okay," Kyouka responded, still deep in thought. She walked to Atsushi's desk and grabbed his sleeve between her index finger and thumb. He looked up from his work, and gave her a smile. "Can we go to the craft store after work?" She asked quietly.

Atsushi seemed to get excited that his roommate was taking an interest in something new. "Of course!" He responded brightly. "We can go as soon as we finish our shift."

Kyouka nodded silently and returned to her desk. "We're going to the craft store," she told Yosano and Naomi. They commended her on it before Naomi began listing out a handful of crafts that could be fun for her. Kyouka sat and listened, noting each one in her head.

"Do you need me to write any of them down for you, Kyouka-chan?" Naomi asked.

Shaking her head, Kyouka looked at her with serious eyes. "I've memorized all of your suggestions."

"You know you don't have to pursue a hobby if you don't really want to," Atsushi said when Kyouka summarized the conversation she'd had with Yosano and Naomi.

"No," Kyouka said. "I want to. It can provide an outlet for stress and a new challenge."

"I thought you worked out stress during training."

Kyouka shrugged wordlessly, as though to say, " _It's a lot of stress."_

"I guess it's good to get into something new as long as you want to," Atsushi muttered, following behind her as she walked through the sliding door of the craft store. "What sort of thing did you have in mind?"

"I don't know," Kyouka replied. "I suppose I'll just choose something that sticks out to me."

A woman with honey blond hair approached them after they'd wandered the seemingly endless aisles for about fifteen minutes. She wore a store uniform and name tag. "Hello," she said warmly. "Do you need help finding anything today?"

"I'm looking to take up a new hobby, and I'm not really sure which one to get into."

"You've come to the right place. We have everything you'll need to get started in several hobbies." She led them down several aisles, basically giving the detectives a tour of the whole store.

Atsushi turned to Kyouka when the tour of every section of the shop concluded. "What do you think, Kyouka-chan? Anything you want to try?"

Kyouka considered what she wanted. She mentally narrowed it down to knitting, whittling, crocheting, and paper making. It wasn't like a few of the life or death decisions she'd had to make before, but it felt like a big deal. When she didn't answer for a minute, the shop employee smiled and told her to take as much time as she needed.

"You're putting a lot of thought into this," Atsushi remarked when they circled the store for the third time. "What have you narrowed it down to?"

"Knitting or crocheting," she muttered, squinting at a crocheting hook before putting it down to examine a pair of knitting needles. She looked up to check out the knitting and crocheting instruction books. A crocheting book caught her eye. It had a picture of a rabbit plushie on it. That made up her mind. She grabbed that book, a book for beginning crocheting, a pack of colorful aluminum crocheting hooks, and three big balls of yarn.

It took less than an hour for Kyouka to get hooked (no pun intended). She had a fire in her eyes, and she had that face she always wore whenever they got assigned a tough job. It took her less than an hour to learn the basics. Despite her quick learning, crocheting didn't come to her completely naturally. Her first experiment resulted in a small strip of woven pink yarn.

Atsushi looked up from his book when he felt a weight on his shoulder. He glanced over to see black hair.

"This is hard," Kyouka muttered, holding up her lopsided creation for him to see.

Atsushi ran his fingertips over her hair. "It doesn't look that bad," he said as he looked at her first creation. "It's your first project, so I'd say it's pretty good." Kyouka made a noise that sounded less than convinced. "Are you going to put it away for tonight?"

She lifted her forehead from Atsushi's shoulder. "No, I'm still working on it." She patted his shoulder. "I was just taking a break. Thank you for letting me use your shoulder," she said before returning to her yarn.

"Don't overwork yourself," Atsushi called over his shoulder.

"I won't."

*** The next night***

It was past three in the morning when Kyouka heard a dull _thud_ that woke her up. The room was pitch black. There was another sound, some sort of chuffing sound. Whatever it was, it didn't sound human. She grabbed for the short sword under her pillow out of habit, and carefully shuffled over to the light switch. The lights revealed a certain weretiger tangled up in bright yellow yarn, and a significantly smaller ball of yarn.

He blinked as the lights came on. Atsushi locked eyes with Kyouka for a minute, his cheeks reddening. Kyouka opened her mouth to say something, but Atsushi beat her to it. "Before you say anything, I swear… I can explain."

Kyouka didn't give him much of a chance to explain. She started to giggle, that giggle turned into breathless laughter. Then she was rolling on the floor, trying to quiet herself.

"It's not that funny," Atsushi muttered as he flushed a deeper red.

"It's still pretty funny," Kyouka said in a hushed tone. "I should have taken a picture," she added under her breath.

"I bumped the yarn when I was going back to bed after getting a glass of water, and…" He didn't have much more to say about it. "The tiger took control," he mumbled.

That last statement sent Kyouka into another fit of giggles. "The _cat_ took control," she said, stroking Atsushi's head. "You were playing with yarn."

"Can you help me get out of this?"

Kyouka forced herself to keep a straight face. "Yes."

It took them a solid half hour to get Atsushi untangled and get the yarn wrapped up into a neat ball again. "How did you get it that tangled up?" Kyouka asked as she put her crocheting supplies away, so they wouldn't run into that issue for a second time. (Even though she wouldn't mind it in the slightest.)

"Don't ask me," Atsushi muttered, crawling back to his closet room. "It was the tiger."

Kyouka smiled again, trying not to let that memory of Atsushi struggling in the yarn like a cat make her laugh again.

*** A few days later***

"It's almost ninety degrees," Atsushi said as he tried to fan himself in the summer heat. He glanced at Kyouka, who was wearing her normal red kimono and slightly lopsided yellow scarf she'd finished early that morning. "Why are you wearing a scarf in this weather?"

"Because I made it."

"But Kyouka-chan, it's mid summer."

"But I made it, and it's my first good project."

"Okay, but…. Just take it off if you feel like you're overheating, okay?"

"I will," Kyouka answered quickly. She felt the stitches of her current project with the tips of her fingers as they walked. She'd gotten so familiar with the yarn and hooks that she'd learned how to crochet a row without giving that her full attention.

"What are you making this time?"

"Blanket."

"That's good," he said not knowing what else to say.

*** A few weeks later***

Atsushi woke up with a strangled gasp. Cold sweat ran along his hairline. He took a few calming breaths before laying himself down again. He stared at the shelf above his head, glared at it more like. He wasn't sure how long it would take for him to calm down, for him to stop feeling like that walls were closing in on him, for his heartbeat to return to a calm, steady pace.

So, he waited. He could wait until the lingering fear passed. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, feeling dampness. Atsushi dragged his hands down his face, groaning silently. He was exhausted and would like to go back to sleep, even though it would be near impossible to relax now.

He sighed halfheartedly, cursing all the nightmares he got. His hands lowered onto an unfamiliar blanket. This made him pause for a moment, running his fingers over it. There were a few tiny holes, but the material didn't feel damaged. Atsushi finally put it all together when his fingers brushed a stray thread of yarn that hadn't been snipped from the blanket.

Atsushi smiled in the darkness. It was still blazing hot outside, but he needed some warmth when he felt his blood run cold on nights like this. _Thank you, Kyouka._ He thought, reminding himself to say it to her verbally in the morning.

 **I wanted to end on a touching note, but there was some difficulty. I originally wanted to make this just Kyouka starting to crochet and Atsushi getting tangled up in her yarn. I'm just very inspired and wrote more.**

 **I actually really want to make a blanket based off of Atsushi's color scheme. Like... Gray, purple, yellow, black and white. My mother does not understand why I'm so passionate about that idea, and in all honesty neither do I, but it's Atsushi, so...**

 **Thank you for reading! Please comment! Love you guys!**


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